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LAS VEGAS — So, Jeremy Lin, what have you been up to since you left Houston?

Must have played some basketball, because the Rockets are hoping to get the right to pay you $25.1 million in the next three seasons.

Actually, it is far from that simple.

Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony, speaking at the Team USA practice in Washington, called that contract “ridiculous.” J.R. Smith told SI.com that he could foresee issues with teammates when Lin is pulling down $14.8 million in 2014-15.

The Knicks would surely point out that Anthony and Smith do not speak for the organization. But at present, they are the only employees speaking at all, which might say volumes.

Last week, New York coach Mike Woodson announced the Knicks would absolutely match Lin’s offer sheet and make him a starter. On Sunday, he amended that answer to “I can’t talk. I can’t talk about it.”

Since Woodson’s original declaration, the Rockets have reworked their offer to Lin so it would guarantee the full contract over three seasons, leaving the Knicks with a poison pill to swallow: between $40 million and $50 million of salary and luxury tax in the third season of Lin’s contract.

By Sunday, the Knicks reached an agreement on a sign-and-trade deal to bring back Raymond Felton to play point guard and presumably make it easier to let Lin go back to the Rockets. They had signed Jason Kidd and Argentinian rookie Pablo Prigioni last week, going from desperate for help at the position when Lin took over to crowded at the point.

Right to the deadline

The Knicks are certain to use every minute to make their decision official. After spending much of Friday and Saturday dodging the Rockets’ efforts to deliver Lin’s offer sheet — the summer version of Linsanity — New York is disputing the Rockets’ and players association’s position that the Knicks have until 10:59 p.m. Tuesday to match the offer or let Lin, 23, walk, a person with knowledge of the process said.

An NBA spokesman said the league will leave it to the teams to divulge the deadline for the Knicks to act, but it seems certain New York will make the Rockets wait.

For the Knicks, the decision — amid some reports that they’ll match and some that they won’t — includes the financial considerations. Lin’s contract would likely push them to the most punitive level of tax penalties in the season they would begin, but his value as a marketing force is difficult to overstate.

The Knicks do not have attendance issues, but Lin can bolster everything from sponsorship deals to stock prices.

The Rockets would also receive many of those benefits, but following the departures of Goran Dragic and Kyle Lowry — the guards who had made Lin expendable in December — they have the pressing need for Lin on the court that the Knicks had in February.

For Lin, a return to Houston could prove as fortuitous as his departure. New York is unparalleled for launching marketing opportunities, but Lin’s running start will bring more than enough attention, and Yao Ming showed how effectively a player can be marketed out of Houston.

On the floor, Lin might be more effective than he would be with a return to New York. In his first 12 starts for the Knicks, he averaged 22.1 points and 9.2 assists, keying the seven-game Linsanity winning streak. With the return of Anthony as the focus of the offense and the coaching change from Mike D’Antoni to Woodson, Lin tailed off.

Good offensive fit

With Kevin McHale, the Rockets ran an offense heavy on point guard pick-and-rolls that suit Lin. If the Rockets do pull off a trade for Dwight Howard, rather than diminish the point guard by adding a star, they would post up their center and also be able to run pick-and-rolls with a devastating finisher.

“This offense is guard-oriented,” said Rockets forward Josh Harrellson, Lin’s teammate with the Knicks. “He’s going to have the ball the majority of the time. If you look at our roster, he’s going to be our superstar. In NewYork, you can’t say the same. Hopefully, he can come here, the offense can run through him, and he can make all the decisions for us.

“As you can see, we don’t have a point guard right now. Right now, it’s instant minutes for him. For a kid that wants to play basketball and be part of a team and make it successful, hopefully he can come and do that for us.”

Signs abound Lin will get his wish. But after so many odd turns, the Rockets will believe it when they see it. Either way, for Lin, it has been an interesting seven months.